If you're like me - go big or go home - then this is the kit for you. It is complete, has easy to follow instructions and I now have my very first batch in the bottles waiting to carbonate. Tasting the beer post-fermentation is like tasting flat beer but you can definitely taste the quality. I opted for the Grolsch-type bottles in 16-oz. For this kit you need 36 16-oz bottles or 48 12-ounce. It was a lot of fun and I'm looking forward to my second brew. Others commented on inferior quality components - maybe I'm not that smart but everything worked beautifully! I will upgrade the sanitizer to a liquid form but for the money, this kit will get you going in style.

Overall a great product. The seller shipped it fast and I had it within a week. The car boy dryer did come shattered and there was some damage to the bottling bucket that occurred during shipping. I contacted Northern Brewer about it they sent replacements extremely fast! Great customer service and the brew kit was super easy to use. Definitely recommend the kit for both ease of use/quality and for their awesome customer service.

Besides the hole in the box, everything was inventoried and present. The only casualty was the carboy drying stand (see photo) The No-Rinse Oxygen Wash bottle leaked a minimal amount of powder. The bottle lid was not on tight. Hopefully, I can get the stand replace and all will be in order. Ready to try this thing.

This was just what was needed to get me started in homebrewing. The recipes are easy to follow and result in a delicious brew. The equipment is just enough to get a head start in brewing, fermenting, and bottling your own been at home. My friends and family have enjoyed the fruits of my labor and I can't wait to make my next batch.

So first off this kit does NOT come with everything you need to brew. I'm a single guy in his 20's so hopefully you have more stuff in your kitchen but I had to buy the following:

-50 Empty Bottles $40
-Brew Kettle $45
-Propane burner $85
-Propane Tank $35
-Brew Spoon $8
-ABV Test kit $18
TOTAL: $231 (more than the actual kit itself)

It's not about the money, I'm just mad they never mention all the extra stuff you gotta get! I would have happily paid more for a complete kit. It's the principle of the matter since I was led to believe this kid had everything I needed to brew beer. In reality it has about 50% of the stuff you need to brew beer.

Now to the actual brew-day! At first everything was great. I mean yeah, the "brew bot" help guide that's supposed to assist you through your brew day didn't actually exist...but who cares? We were following along with the Northern Brewer YouTube video guide just fine. At least until we had to use the auto-siphon --- which was WAY shorter than the one they used in the video --- didn't notice until later that there were 2 hoses of different sizes in the kit, it was unclear which was used for bottling vs transferring throughout the process. Either way, a longer hose is definitely needed -- both hoses were too short imo. And who actually uses that thick short carboy blow-off hose anyway? Just replace that with a longer hose and I think us customers will be better off for it.

UPDATE:
Last night the fermentation was finally finished so I was able to bottle the beer -- unfortunately there was only 4 gallons to bottle, not sure if that last gallon evaporated or spilled or if we didn't follow the directions correctly in the first place. Just as a reference, I bought 50 empty bottles and when I was ready to bottle, 4 gallons of beer filled about 42 of them. Also when we dry-hopped in the secondary, the hops caused A LOT of hop particles/flakes that wouldn't sink (even after 1.5 weeks) -- so that stuff was floating around even during bottling. I tried my best to avoid the hop flakes when siphoning from the secondary to the bottling bucket but some particles still made it into the bottles (hoping this settles to the bottom and is embedded into the layer of yeast that forms during conditioning. Note: The bottling wand WILL clog with hop flakes/particles so I had to clean that out mid-bottling.

My experience with this kit has been so-so but I'm a generous reviewer so for now I'm giving it 4 stars.

I'll try to update this once the bottles finish carbonating and are ready for consumption.

Update 12/2/19
The bottles have finished conditioning. Many of the bottles have quite a bit of sludge at the bottom (much more than I expected). So drinking straight from the bottle is a definite no-go. I had to pour into a glass and leave about an inch or two of liquid at the bottom of the bottle (about 20-30% of the liquid) to avoid the sludge from pouring into the glass. Is this normal?? I'm an Industrial Engineer by trade and I develop processes for a living; but given how the beer turned out, I've concluded that either the instructions are incomplete or I wasn't smart enough to understand this process. Either way I admit defeat with this kit. Maybe you'll succeed where I failed. Best of luck!